Revenue Action Plan

July 22, 2010

Seven Ways to Stimulate Growth this Year

Is this going to be your year for turning “On” the power of business development in your business? If your answer is yes, here are seven keys to success:

√1.Focus on client’s profits, not your own.

There is a limited demand for tax return preparation services, but there is unlimited demand for professionals who help clients improve profits! If you are still focusing on increasing your billable hours, billing rates or net fees, it’s time to reorient your thinking.

√2. Build relationships with your clients’ other team members

This year, plan to meet with your Top 10 clients’ other professionals, owners and influencers. If you focus on not-for-profits, get to know some of the board members. All of these people are the movers and shakers in your community. For your commercial clients, get to know the next generation of managers and owners. Create a team working for your client, and you will create a referral team that also works for you.

√3. Develop a unique selling proposition.

When meeting with prospects, focus on the value you can offer, and on what makes you different than your competitors. Fee terms should almost be an afterthought. When you bring value through your uniqueness, client will pay more even in a tough economy.

√4. Learn to ask better questions.

Knowing how to ask good questions is the foundation of being an effective advisor. Through questioning, you learn what you need to know to help your clients. Good questions will make your prospect or client uncomfortable in their present state. Comfortable clients don’t buy much.

√5. Help clients prepare for the future.

Past may be prologue, but clients are more interested in today and tomorrow than they are in yesterday. Help your clients use financial statements as a foundation for making better judgments and business decisions. Use our Bear Hug Action Plan to help you focus on the future.

√6. Prepare a services matrix.

Prepare a matrix of clients and services used for your largest clients. Probably 5% of your clients (including families and controlled groups) make up over 50% of your revenue. Use the matrix to determine your best opportunities. After you’ve prepared this matrix, call on each client and review potential services.

√7. Don’t hibernate during compliance season.

Clients are never more interested in help with their business than when confronted with last year’s financial results or with their tax liability. Plan now for cross-selling to each client you meet with during this filing season. Augment the effort with press releases, articles, and mailings. Prepare the materials before the season; release them during compliance time.

8. Always Give More Than You Promise.

Always exceed your client expectations and you will have a continuous flow of delighted clients. Sometimes, under pressure, you may promise a report before it can realistically be completed. Learn to manage expectations by promising the outside date, not the earliest. Then deliver earlier.

July 21, 2010

Want to grow your firm? Go into work late.

Business development does not come from the hours you currently bill.  Those hours make sure the bills are paid and determine how much the firm is going to make today but they do not grow your firm.

Business development comes from using those non-billable hours proactively.  The top rainmakers in the industry know to strategically plan out how they are going to use non-billable time to develop new business.  One suggestion I have heard time and time again from top rainmakers is to start each day with business development meeting.  Start your day meeting with referral sources, top clients and prospects for breakfast or coffee.  This will allow you to look for new business and cross-serving opportunities as well as provide face time for reconnecting.  Building business proactively has its benefits:

1.    Proactive business development keeps your pipeline full.  When you are consistently meeting with referral sources and prospects, your pipeline will continue to grow with new opportunities.
2.    Proactive business development allows you to be selective in whom you bring on as a client.  The goal for all business development initiatives should be to bring in better business, not just more business.  By being proactive, you can select with whom you want to work and not just take anything that walks in the door.
3.    Grow faster than your competition.  Business development initiatives take planning and determination; therefore it is likely that your competition is not putting the effort into this type of initiative.  If you can make proactive business development a part of your daily activity you will grow faster.

Non-billable hours are key to developing the new business you want from the types of clients you want.  Strategically planning morning meetings are a great way to get in front of the people you need to in order to reach the business development goals you have set for yourself.  Try going into work late at least once a week for the next four months and see if your ability to generate business goes up.  No sleeping in!  This is time to develop business.

Author;
Bryan Shelton, M.S.
Consultant
The Rainmaker Consulting Group

July 14, 2010

Jumping Into Success

As I watched my 10 year old daughter’s dive practice the other day I saw her and many kids on the team jump effortlessly off the board; diving, flipping, and twisting into the water. It all seemed so effortless until they began doing back dives and flips. Their dive coach tells them that mechanically it is easier for your body to do a back flip than a front flip, yet these kids found it much harder to make the jump. Some of them would stand there almost paralyzed until they and the coach built them up to a level of comfort and confidence that they could do it. And when they did the back dives and flips did seem to be as easy as the coach said they were.

Still, standing backwards on a high dive is scary. It is a blind, leap of faith. You know the water is at the bottom of the dive… the same as if you were facing the other way. Yet your mind races ahead thinking of the potential disasters that could take place when you can’t see what is waiting.

This all struck me as similar to what happens to many accountants and accounting firms. Often you know and understand what you should do in order to be successful and grow yet when you are standing there ready to jump you hesitate not knowing exactly what will unfold if you leave the safety of normal routine. For many accountants an analogy to use would be growing your list of prospects and proactively reaching out to them to develop business. It’s great to think of generating new revenue however the visions of rejection start entering your head and picking up the phone then becomes the equivalent of jumping backwards into that water.

Similarly, I was speaking with the Managing Partner of an accounting firm the other day and he described how his firm has been agonizing over the same technology decisions for years. He understands that the non decisions have been holding the firm back from being more efficient and thus more profitable yet the fear of making a bad choice has been too powerful to overcome. Their firm has researched and talked about the issues with other firms, staff, and IT experts. Yet he sits there wanting to make the jump but can’t, so he does nothing which hurts the firm.

Often accountants for years will put off doing things for fear of the unknown. They don’t want to confront partners who are setting a bad example; they defer developing firm successors, and some even obtain loans from the bank rather than collect accounts receivables from clients.

Just as jumping backward from the diving board sends fear through divers heads. Running a business and being a leader can be frightening when you can’t always see what’s out there. Still, making that leap of faith, living with no regrets by taking action, and ignoring all the unnecessary fear and anxiety often associated with being a leader can and will move you ahead of your competitors and place you at a higher level within your firm and the accounting profession.

Patrick Pruett

The Alliance of Professional Associations

July 12, 2010

Stewardship – the next step in succession planning

New College, Oxford University was founded in 1379. On the campus the architects created a dining hall and in the ceiling were magnificent oak beams that measured two feet think by forty feet long. About a century ago during a routine inspection, an inspector noticed the massive oak beams were being eaten away by beetles. Concern spread among the university fellows wondering where they would get oak beams of the caliber that were used in the late 14th century. They spent the next several days considering their alternatives. They understood that time was of the essence and that they needed to move quickly. A junior fellow suggested the bold but simple move of asking the university forester about the possibility of having trees on the campus that could be harvested to meet the need. When the forester was summoned he said, “We were wondering when you’d be asking about the beams. Oak beams always get beetles and we knew these would too.”
In fact almost 500 years ago this had been anticipated and planned for. A huge grove of oak trees had been planted with the strict instructions to every university forester, “These oaks are not to be harvested. They are for replacing the oak beams at New College.”
We are amazed at these kinds of stories but in fact many cultures have this type of long range planning and foresight. The Chinese are renowned for having 50, 100 and 500 year plans. Yet, what are the long term plans for your accounting firm? Most firms have difficulty seeing beyond the term of their founding or managing partner. There are exceptions however. A firm that we work with in the western states invests deliberate and purposeful time in building the culture of their firm. They are building stewards. The partners are planning for the long term success of their firm.
As I travel across North America I observe the best firm’s practice of stewardship. They are intentional about the long term sustainability of their firm. They are planning for it, equipping it and making sure that the culture is being lived on a daily basis. In essence the work of stewardship is the same as the work of branding. Branding and stewardship are concerned with the business of living the values of the organization and having a clear picture and clear practice about the important values of the firm.
Take a moment today to think about your business. Work “on the business” more than you are working “in the business”. Think about the stewards you are building or not building. The long term success of your firm depends on it.

Scott Bradbary

The Rainmaker Academy

624 Grassmere Park Drive, Suite 15   •   Nashville, Tennessee 37211   •   Tel 1.888.797.7246   •   Fax 615.377.7092